A Manual of Elementary Geology: or, The Ancient Changes of the Earth and its Inhabitants as Illustrated by Geological Monuments — John Shaqi
A Manual of Elementary Geology: or, The Ancient Changes of the Earth and its Inhabitants as Illustrated by Geological MonumentsLyell, Charles, Sir
Science
A Manual of Elementary Geology: or, The Ancient Changes of the Earth and its Inhabitants as Illustrated by Geological Monuments
Lyell, Charles, Sir
Geology
_Foot-prints of Lower Carboniferous reptiles in the United States._--I have
stated, at p. 340., that in 1849, Mr. Isaac Lea observed the foot-marks of
a large reptile in the lowest beds of the coal formation at Pottsville,
about seventy miles N.E. of Philadelphia. These researches have since been
carried farther by Professor H. D. Rogers, in the same region of
anthracitic coal, lying on the eastern flank of the Alleghany Mountains.
Beneath the productive coal-measures of that country occurs a dense mass of
red shales and sandstones, which correspond nearly in position to the
millstone grit and Mountain Limestone of the south-east of England. In
these beds foot-prints, referred to three species of quadrupeds, have
lately been detected, all of them five-toed and in double rows, with an
opposite symmetry, as if made by right and left feet, while they likewise
display the alternation of fore foot and hind foot. One species, the
largest of the three, presents a diameter for each foot-print of about two
inches, and shows the fore and hind feet to be nearly equal in dimensions.
It exhibits a length of stride of about nine inches, and a breadth between
the right and left treads of nearly four inches. The impressions of the
hind feet are but little in the rear of the fore feet. The animal which
made them is supposed to have been allied to a Saurian, rather than to a
Batrachian or Chelonian; but more information is required before so
difficult a point can be decided. With these foot-marks were seen shrinkage
cracks, such as are caused by the sun's heat in mud, and rain-spots, with
the signs of the trickling of water on a wet, sandy beach; all confirming
the conclusion derived from the foot-prints, that the quadrupeds belonged
to air-breathers, and not to aquatic races.[xii-A] The Cheirotherian
foot-prints, figured by me at p. 338., in which the fore and hind feet are
very unequal in size, betoken a distinct genus, and occur in the midst of
the productive coal measures, being consequently less ancient.
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